Self Improvement: Making The Best Of Everything

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Forge Your Wealth is meant for education and entertainment and should not be used for financial advice.

My wife and I have spent considerably more time cooking recently. She recently pointed out that our knives were not cutting as cleanly as they used to. The typical consumer response is to buy a new knife. Our response was to pull out the knife sharpener. Most people never think about sharpening their tools. In fact, a knife sharpener is probably the most underrated kitchen tool if it is even owned. Many people probably have no idea of how to sharpen a knife. Just to illustrate the point, does anyone know what this kitchen tool is, or at least what it does?

This is a deburring tool. While sharpeners sharpen the knife, sharpening frequently leaves sharp burs behind. These tools help to remove those burs.

It is amazing how little time people spend preparing to do their best work. Even the most achieved workers have a tendency to rush into work as opposed to prepare more. We all have to do work on our computers from time to time, but we do not perform disk cleanups very often to make our computers work quicker and to prevent computer crashes. You’re looking up what a desk cleanup is now aren’t you? No worries, this post is not going anywhere, at least it’s better than a kitten video taking your attention away. In the mean time, might as well be sure you own a knife sharper. You will thank me for it once you realize you have been using a very dull knife without it.

The Need For Self Improvement

Even worse, people seem to ignore sharpening or maintaining their most important tool. Themselves. The steps to self improvement will make your life more full and by literal definition will make you a better person.

Learn Your Strengths And Weaknesses

Self improvement requires you to learn what your strengths are and improve off them. I find strengths as the more important thing to improve. Some talk about improving off of your weaknesses, but I find it better to try to turn them into strengths. Most characteristics worth having have a downside and usually make people’s weaknesses. For instance, being an introvert makes you less able to express yourself. However, it makes you less vulnerable to care what others think. I am not saying to ignore your weaknesses, but to embrace them and find ways to utilize your strengths to compensate for your weaknesses. For instance, if you have a difficult time learning from listening, you probably have a better way of learning. You probably learn more from reading. You could try to write down what you understand, then review those notes and find other reading material to learn from.

Branching Out

I like to think of your talents and what comes naturally to you as your roots. You obtain all the nutrients you need to grow from them. However, growing straight up from those roots will not allow you to absorb the sunlight in order to utilize those nutrients to grow further. A plant needs to branch out in order to spread its leaves to absorb more light and process those nutrients. You need to branch out so you can process what your the gifts your talents absorb so you can grow.

Better Mental Health

Self improvement helps to keep you centered. By being more centered, you will have better clarity and self-confidence. These will improve your mental health significantly. Now people need more mental health than ever. Knowing yourself will keep you mentally sound.

Steps To Improve

1) Listen To Others

I have previously stated that you must listen to others more to become an expert. There is much knowledge you can collect by listening, probably the most important knowledge is about yourself. You should do everything within your power to learn about your strengths and weaknesses. You are not likely to see your own strengths and weaknesses as well as others are. If you keep communications open with others they will praise you for what you do right and be honest with you about what you do wrong.

2) Embrace Your Strengths And Weaknesses

After you have learned about your strengths and weaknesses you must embrace them as a part of who you are. Unless you want to change yourself, you will not be able to significantly change your strengths nor weaknesses. It is better to embrace them and to work with them.

3) Learn What You Could Do With Your Strengths And What May Be Wrong With Your Weaknesses

Many of your strengths have a direct path to at least one solid career. You could and should utilize your strengths to make a career you would be proud of.

However, your weaknesses could make these certain pathways…unwise. For instance, you may have a creative mind, but if you do not care for visual details or appeal, you may not make the best photographer or video director. You determine what the best path you should take with your strengths and weaknesses because this will be what drives you, you can develop your drive into something you can use to forge your wealth.

4) Educate Yourself As Long As You Breathe

Having a drive is not enough to be the better version of yourself. You will constantly need to educate yourself to forge your better self. How can you educate yourself on something you do not care about? Only by brutally forcing yourself. Education must come naturally in order to improve. There is no step 5, not really. Self improvement is a constant strategy, and education will only be worthless if have learned everything (you have not nor ever will).

Final Thoughts

It may feel hard to believe that anything will improve, but it will. Even if you are in lock down you can do everything you can to improve the world once it reopens. You have the skills to do so and even if you cannot use them to their fullest capability, then you can self improve so as soon as the world opens up, you can play your part to the fullest capability. Even when this crisis is over and mostly forgotten, you will need to use these skills to keep going to forge your wealth.

Author: Papa Foxtrot

Most of my life I was careful with money and learned where I should invest it. I was very lucky to have parents who taught me financial literacy when I was young. Unfortunately, I am very lucky because many people lack the financial literacy I know. The purpose of Forge Your Wealth is to teach people who are just starting out in life how to obtain their wealth or anyone who just realized they may need to learn more to handle their finances.
I currently have a PhD in biochemistry, just started a job in industry (will not disclose where exactly for personal and professional reasons) and am currently married to the love of my life. I am one of the lucky few people in America who graduated with no student debts, my wife was not. Over the series of a little over 3 years we paid for our wedding with no debt and paid off her federal student loans.
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